New e-mail scam targets job seekers

A slick, new e-mail scam is putting well-intentioned job seekers at risk of losing $3,000 -- and being arrested for check fraud, an investigator revealed at the Black Hat security conference Wednesday.


A cybercriminal gang based in Russia is sending e-mail directly to thousands of job seekers who've posted resumes on popular job websites, according to Joe Stewart a senior researcher at SecureWorks.



The job offer: the recruit can earn more than $300 for cashing a commercial business check, made out to him or her, and wiring the proceeds to a contact in St. Petersburg, Russia.


If the person agrees, a professionally printed business check arrives the next day by a shipping service. To earn the $300, the victim is required to cash the check and execute the wire transfer within 24 hours.


Stewart has discovered digital images of some $9 million worth of high-quality fake checks, each in amounts of slightly less than $3,000, written against some 1,200 business accounts. Many of the accounts are for contractors who often pay individual subcontractors with such checks.


The checks are so good because the cyber gang hacked into the databases of three firms that archive images of legit commercial business checks.


The criminals downloaded all the images they could find, grabbing bank routing numbers, names and addresses and even signatures of legitimate account holders. They used the information to create their own checks using easy-to-acquire software and printers.


"Presumably this scam has been working because they've been doing it for at lest a year and they wouldn't be doing it this long if it were not making them money," says Stewart.


SecureWorks says it is working with the FBI and says the hackers have not been caught.

Read more: http://www.azcentral.com/business/articles/2010/07/28/20100728New-e-mail-scam-targets-job-seekers.html?source=nletter-business#ixzz0vA635uZU






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How to get any Job you want using Social Media

Let’s face it. Job-hunting today is tougher than it’s ever been before. Not to mention just getting an interview can be a chore once you’ve found a job of semi-interest. So how do you find a job? How do you get an interview once a potential job is found? Believe it or not you can get any job you want by using Facebook, Twitter and by blogging. I should also mention there is a lot more work involved than just setting up an account. If you really want to use social media to get a job, there is some serious commitment and work involved.

Getting control of your name

Most HR managers today typically are more likely to search your name to see what pops up first, and then go over the paper resume. Even if it’s vise versa, they will perform a search on your name. If you don’t agree then I say it’s better to prepare as if they are looking. So the question now becomes, what will show up? What is the first impression a potential employer will get of you before even meeting you? Go ahead and search for your name to see what pops up. If you have some social media accounts most likely those will appear first, and if you have a website that may also appear. But if not, I would check it out. Things like winning a pie contest at the local county fair could show up or in some cases, something a little less flattering like a mention in an article about ‘Your name here’ being a drunk driver in a hit and run.

Author is on the far right (note bottles of IBC Rootbeer)

Let’s start with the profiles you’ve already got up and running. What photo do you have in the profile? One of you and some buddies chilling at Mardi Gras or something your mother would be proud of? I’ll be the first to say, if it’s the right job keep the photo of Mardi Gras up. This is where knowing what field your going into comes into play. You want to present yourself as an individual ready to work in the desired arena. So if it means you want to be a social worker, get a photo up of you playing with kids, if you want to be a rodeo clown, think Ronald McDonald. The point is to portray the role you want to have.

A last point on this section is that if someone else with the same name as you is showing up in the results it can be pretty tough to jump ahead of them. But a way to do this is to either buy your domain, www.firstnamelastname.com, or if you need a cheap way start a blog at either wordpress or blogger. Then link to your social media profiles from there so whoever finds it knows which profiles to pay attention to.

Keeping privacy private & publicity public

I’ll start off this section with plugging a post from a pretty smart guy I stumbled across on twitter. Mike Halvorson wrote a great post about social media tips for his unemployed friends. Pay close attention to the section about setting Facebook privacy settings. When an account is set up you need to determine what information is made public to those you aren’t friends with. Any inappropriate photos, or other information you don’t want potential employers to see just yet should be blocked. This demonstrates two things:
1. You are aware of what is being presented to the public about you.
2. You are telling the potential employer what areas to pay attention to.
Twitter and blogs can be a little more difficult to control as to who looks at what information. I mean come on, the reason employers are searching your name online is so they can get to know you without alerting you they are looking. If nothing inappropriate is being tweeted, leave the account un-protected, if you don’t think information on the blog will hurt your chances, let the pages get crawled by the search engines.

To keep it simple, only post online what you want to be seen.

Optimizing current social media profiles

This is surprisingly easy, or it should be anyway. If you’ve sent out the resume already then take a quick pick at the copy you should have to see what name you placed on it. Sounds funny, but my resume has my name as Joshua Titsworth, and my profiles have either Josh or JT those profiles might not appear where I want them to in the searches. It’s all about keeping it consistent. Don’t just stop there; if possible change any screen-names you can to ‘firstnamelastname’ as it appears on the resume. Only change the profiles you want found and don’t edit what needs to be kept private to the potential employer.

As with normal SEO, changes in the search results will take some time. So be patient. In the mean time I’ve got some homework for those who don’t have a blog just yet.

Setting up a blog

GET A BLOG UP AND GOING. All caps excessive? Perhaps, but I hope you got the message. But what better way for an employer to get a great first impression of a candidate than by reading his/her thoughts and opinions. When writing a blog to get a job there is a right and wrong way to go about it.

A wrong way to blog is by writing about only personal thoughts, ranting on and on about how much you want a job in a certain industry. Also avoid writing about anything inappropriate or extremely controversial. Lisa Barone recently updated a few blogging rules one of which used to be, “You must blog every day”. For the type of blog you are setting up I’d say 1-2 times a week is plenty. But keep it consistent.

A right way to begin blogging for a job is to mix up your posts with industry opinions and personal thoughts. Show the readers (potential employers) you are actively researching and learning more about the industry in question by writing about it. I’d also add a page devoted to your resume, while browsing the posts he/she may decide to read over the resume again and what do you know? There it is at their convenience to read.

Don’t stop at just posting on your blog, find other blogs/publications in the industry you are seeking employment in and participate. Check out the guidelines about contributing and contribute if you can. If you do post elsewhere on the net keep an archive listed on your blog for others to check out.

Lastly and most importantly let your passion shine through in the blog posts. And if you get called in for an interview, bring that same passion and personality to the interview. They don’t want to get mixed signals from reading about a bright confident person and before them is someone shy and intimidated. The blog and all other social media networks you are using are to compliment your efforts in getting a job, you still need to bring it.

In closing, I’d like to mention don’t stop at just regular social media accounts. Search for online communities within the desired industry to start networking online. Resources like that can be invaluable when looking for a job. Again, using social media to get a job is only part of the equation. Have a good resume to hand in so they go look for you online, if you are exhibiting confidence and intelligence online show it at the interview.

I hope you found this informative, if you have anything to add to it I’d love to hear it. Thanks for reading, good luck and happy hunting!

Joshua Titsworth 








"Job boards launched a revolution in recruiting more than 15 years ago. And now, social networks are doing the same -- but in a targeted way. Through social recruiting, companies are learning they can find the best talent efficiently, without making a major investment."

*92 percent of those actively hiring in 2010 currently use or plan to recruit via social networks.

*Among this group, 86 percent use LinkedIn, 60 percent use Facebook and 50 percent use Twitter for recruiting.

*In addition, 50% of hiring companies plan to invest more in social recruiting while only 17% will spend more on job boards and 36% will spend less.






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What is pre employment screening?

Pre employment screening is the process of carrying out background checks on potential candidates (ie, you the job seeker).  It is considered (by employers, but more so by those promoting pre employment screening services) to be necessary in this day and age.

Why?  Well it's like insurance.

Employers pay out a lot of money to hire employees and a bad decision can really burn a hole in their pocket.  So, it's argued that by pre screening candidates, they can deter those who would try to falsify their application (with a fake background or education for example).

So what does pre employment screening involve then?

Presumably it varies from country to country (and within the US, from state to state).  I had a look at a few US firms offering pre employment screening services and they included:

• Search of multiple sources including, public and private records, schools, licensing bodies and former employers.
• Criminal history search.
• Addresses history.
• Credit report.
• Driving history.
• Quite a lot of other stuff too!

So it seems that employers can gain quite a lot of information about candidates for a relatively low price (prices from $15).

Surely that's a good thing then - better for everyone?

Having never been submitted to pre employment screening (to my knowledge!!), I'm hesitant to comment on the issue.  I do fully appreciate an employers wish to protect their investment as it were, but I am concerned that pre employment screening can lead to a form of discrimination.

Indeed, in researching this article I found a company offering pre employment screening who stated on their site that one of the benefits of it is that it deters people applying if they have a criminal record.  It goes on to claim that "regular" job seekers are anxious to work in a safe environment, so pre employment screening is in everyone's best interest.

Not being too familiar with the legal system, I will assume that this is all perfectly acceptable business practice.  It just seems to me to exclude certain groups of people unfairly.

However, I should note that I don't know how this information is dealt with.  It could very well be the case that employers don't exclude those with criminal records unless it could directly affect their business.

What to do if you are asked to submit to pre employment screening?

Have a look at this article on about.com, "Background check".  It covers your rights and related information so there is no real need for me to repeat it all here.

As with all areas of your job search, it's best to go in prepared and sites like this (and other career advice sites out there) can help you do that!  We don't have all the answers, but we can certainly help point you in the right direction.

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How To Re-Invent Yourself Through Social

The last few years have been hard for a lot of people. The Great Recession, the Great Reset, whatever you want to call it. Times like these cause a lot of  change, at a macro and micro level. We’ve watched whole industries radically change. And I love talking about that change here on this blog. But it’s easy to overlook or forget the impact that change has on the individual.

I’ve had an interesting career path. This was just the last 10 years:

Retail Manager >> Restaurant general manager >> Mountain bike tour guide >> Skateboard shop owner >> PR intern >> Partner at a grassroots marketing agency >> MBA student/graduate >> Launching a startup >> Social media manager at HP >> EIR at a VC firm >> Social media consultant

I’ve learned a lot over the years but one of the most valuable skills I’ve learned is how to reinvent yourself. I’m not just talking about evolutionary career changes but revolutionary, disruptive, life altering career changes.

Big changes can be scary and very difficult. You have to learn a whole new field. Your livelihood and identity are tied to your job. When I was at HP I watched a lot of my coworkers get laid off. These were employees who started working for HP right out of college and spent the next 30 years working on nothing but LaserJet printers. When they were laid off they had almost no marketable job skills.

I don’t blame HP or any of the other companies who make the same decisions everyday. Blaming a big company for laying people off is like blaming a restaurant for going out of business. To me “job security” means being able to find employement or employ yourself. The illusion that your employer is responsible for your career no longer exists.

So for those of you who find yourself in the need for a little reinvention I thought I would share with you my three tips for reinventing yourself. There simple but not easy.

Go Native

Going native means you go all in. This is not a spectator sport. You don’t get to watch from the sidelines. You don’t get to pretend.

Anthropologists (of which I often count myself) know that it’s all about sub-cultures. Every career is really just a different sub-culture.  You need to completely submerge yourself in the culture of that profession. Read everything you can get your hands on. You don’t have to understand it all but you have to learn the vocabulary.

I hated vocabulary in school. I hated it because it was always presented as route memorization completely out of context. There is very little difference between almost any profession, it’s 90% vocabulary. We’re almost always talking about the same things, we just use different vocabulary. Vocabulary is one of the defining tools of a culture. It’s how we know who’s in and who’s faking it.

When I bought the skateboard shop I read every skate mag I could get my hands on and watched every video I could. I made a point to learn the names of every trick – which is not easy to do from those videos, good thing slow motion is so popular in those videos.

When I started in “new media” six tears ago I made sure to read as many blogs as I could and always stay up on the vocabulary.  Even if a lot of it is BS.

Follow Your Passions

Life is way to short. If you’re reading this you most likely live in the developed World and there is no reason to do something you are not passionate about. You either need to find something about your job you can be passionate about or find a new job. You cannot reinvent yourslef unless you are passionate about what you will become.

Don’t chase money or opportunity. Chase your passions and money and opportunity will present itself. This will also lead you to proactive reinvention not reactionary reinvention.

Be the Best in the World

Being the best is not a 9-5 job. 40 hours a week is part time. Being the best is a choice you have to make everyday. But being the best in the world means creating your world. You can’t be the best of someone else’s world. Be the best in the World at being you. When I was at HP and the layoff were starting people used to ask me if I was afraid. When I very confidently laughed off the question and people questioned me further, my answer probably wasn’t reassuring to my coworkers:

“If you don’t think you could go out there today and find a job, why would your current employer want to keep you?”

The trick of it is, you get to define the “world” but you don’t get to define “best.” You get to define exactly what you want to be (your world) but your customers, coworkers, employees, friends and family (your mom doesn’t count) get to define whats best.

The New You

That’s it really. To summarize this entire post in one sentence: If you want to reinvent yourself you have to submerge yourself in something you care deeply about with the single goal of being the very best at it.

http://SocialBusinessToday.net - The Best in Social Business


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A Job Search’s Most Valuable Asset

It’s one of the most difficult perspectives you and I must adopt in job search: Time is your most valuable asset.

It sounds crazy, as it feels completely the opposite; given the long days you have during search.

Let me share a few observations about time, from my own search, and how not managing this valuable asset will impact the time you spend in search.

3 - 4 Hours: Time dedicated per ineffective networking meeting. Add up the time for the following actions: Get the contact, set up the meeting, prepare to meet, travel to meeting, meeting, travel home and follow-up.

These hours were ineffective, when I allowed myself to ‘just’ network and not really have a good plan on how we could mutually benefit from meeting. I know there is always the ‘wild card’ that the person will have a good connection, but generally this is not the case.

15 - 20 Hours: Time dedicated per chasing job opportunity where I had limited chance. Time used: Researching the opportunity, preparing your submission, finding contacts in the company, preparing for the interview, travel to interview, interview(s), travel back home, and follow-up.

Before investing in time to pursue a role where you partially match the company’s needs, try to figure out if you have a realistic chance (use your network to help). Due to connection, I made the final round on a couple roles, but from the start I had a limited chance. Yet, I dedicated time as though I did, because I did not assess the opportunity due to have a good connection.

The ugly math: Chasing three clunker networking meetings and a ‘poor fit’ role will cost you 24 – 32 hours of time that could be used toward finding a job. The amount of time could be easily more, especially with interviews.

The simple solution: Make a plan for every week (See http://candidateschair.com/tools/ - for “Organizing Your Search Week”) and then rate the value of each meeting (See “Daily Point System”). Even if you don’t want to track points, use the tool to help you judge the value of a meeting.

Time is your primary investment during search. Invest wisely.

Good luck this week.

Mark
www.candidateschair.com – Tools and Advice from a Candidate’s viewpoint to help get past job search roadblocks and keep your spirit strong. Please take a visit.


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When the “Truth” Seems Elusive During a Job Search

Do you know the ‘truth’ during your search?

No? Then you have some company! In the past three weeks, I’ve launched a new search (Yes! I’m back in the Candidates Chair). My first refresher lesson: Reset my expectations around the ‘truth’.

To date, I received in response to jobs applied to, inquiries to open positions and requests to network

The ‘Dear John’ letter: ‘You were one of our top candidates to choose from, however, …”.

Cliché-Fiesta: Responses which filled an e-mail but said very little.

In Vague: Responses using terms like “new events internally”, “other factors”

No Response: Silence is the new ‘no’.

For each there was little true feedback to act upon to improve my pitch or understand why there was not a fit or interest. To keep my frustration in check, I’ve adopted the following practices when this happens.

Philosophy: “There are opportunities out there for me; this is just not one of them”. Move on and not waste time on speculating over what happened (or not) did little to give me actionable information.

Document misunderstandings: If I ever had to address a misunderstanding of my background, etc. it was generally due to not delivering it correctly (not concise, vague description, etc.)

Review of my document: I find people that would give me direct (and sometimes ruthless) feedback. I would also review other candidates’ documents for presentation, excellent explanations of duties, etc.

Interviewing skills: Immediately following every interview, I would write down what went well and what fell flat (did the same for networking meetings that yielded great results.) This running list of items helped me when practicing answers.

In short, no one is going to fill your ‘Truth’ bucket. So best do it yourself.

As always, make this work for you and hope this helps.

Good luck today!

Mark Richards

www.candidateschair.com – Tools and Advice from a Candidate’s viewpoint to help get past job search roadblocks and keep your spirit strong. Please take a visit.



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